I'll get to the most pressing one first, which was a shooting that occurred at Belmont and Kimball on Saturday morning (July 14th) at 5:00am. According to the information I have on record, a 25 year old man was shot in the leg or groin and was last reported to be in serious condition at Illinois Masonic Hospital. CPD believes the shooting was gang-related. From what I know about this incident, this shooting occurred 15 minutes after a prior incident involving the victim being rammed by occupants of a black SUV. Apparently, the victim and his three occupants were being followed by this SUV on the Kennedy Expressway, then exited the Expressway near Belmont/Kimball, where they rammed the victim's car several times before the victim and his cohorts ended up at the gas station over there. Then they called for a tow truck to take the car to the pounds. Shortly after the tow truck arrived, witnesses reported that someone started shooting from a gangway between two buildings on the other side of the street. Everyone ducked, but obviously, the victim was shot. One witness reported that they saw the accident as they were standing outside, working at a nearby business. Thankfully, that witness was inside when the shooting happened, but they did say that the gunshots sounded like they were coming from the lots south of the buildings on Belmont, which I'm assuming is the south alley of Belmont between Kimball and Bernard. One of the victim's friends said that they saw a vehicle back up behind the buildings from where the shots came from and assumed that the shooter jumped in the car and took off. An Audi was also shot up in this incident, but thankfully, the owner of that car was dining in a restaurant nearby. The victim's friend denied that the shooting was gang-related.
The next incident was a shooting that occurred last Wednesday evening (July 11th) around 9:45pm at Washtenaw and Bloomingdale. I don't have much information on this one at all, but an EveryBlock user had reported that a man was shot in his front room. A commenter on here confirmed that there were shots fired into a house on the 1800 block of Washtenaw, and that police were investigating on the Bloomingdale Trail after the shooting.
Finally, I'll get to the sexual assault incident. This occurred at the end of last month, on June 30th, but I just heard about the incident on Sunday. Chicago Police say that the two offenders were armed with guns. Allegedly, the victim met the offenders at the Kedzie-Homan Blue Line station on the West Side, and then they forced her off the train at the California stop, then took her to an apartment on the 2800 block of W. Lyndale, where they sexually assaulted her. This incident occurred at 6:30am in the morning, in the morning rush hour. Both suspects were male Blacks in their 20s, about 5'10 to 6 feet tall, and about 150 to 160 lbs. One offender was wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a blue hat, and the second one was wearing a maroon plaid shirt, blue jeans and a Philadelphia Phillies baseball hat. CPD asks that anyone with any information on this incident to please contact Area North Detectives at (312)-744-8261. Neighbors are also being encouraged to report any suspicious people and activities, as well as people who loiter in the area.
Ok, my take on all this. Community, it is time for us to get involved, period. No questions asked. No ifs, buts, etc. We all must stand up to the evils plaguing our neighborhood and we must respond to it accordingly. Form block clubs, get to know your neighbors, call the police when you see something. But we especially do need to form block clubs, and to add on, attend your local CAPS meeting as well as any other community meetings that are scheduled. In general, the Chicago Police Department is working hard to reduce and/or end crime in our area, but they need our help. Please, take a stand. This is OUR neighborhood. We have life investments here, we have families here, we have our schools here. This neighborhood is everything to some of us. So we need to take that to heart and find ourselves being involved. We all have busy schedules and busy lives, and you don't need to be at each and every single meeting to do that. Call 911 when you see something, report graffiti, etc. But do something. ALL of us have a role to play in making our community better. I cannot stress enough that now is the time to get involved. Now.
If you have any information on any of the incidents here, as well as any other incidents in our community, please leave a comment, on the Facebook page, or send me an email.
6 comments:
I've noticed a lot of fresh graffiti on Fullerton, between Kedzie and Central Park recently. I keep trying to call 311 to report it, and hopefully get it taken care of, but I still haven't gotten through to anyone after waiting for 10+ minutes each time.
Most of these shooting victims are gangbangers or somebody that hangs out with gangbangers. No great loss there.
I have 3 kids, a job & take care of my elderly parents. Not everyone has time to attend your block party events.
Anonymous 6:53, I would encourage you to also report it online at https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller?op=reset
Anonymous 7:31, no one died in these events. But still, these incidents happened in OUR community, on OUR streets. Even if the shooters know each other, that gives them NO right to shoot each other on our streets.
Anonymous 3:46, these are not "my" events, they're events by the Chicago Police Department, your alderman, etc. I don't host events in our community for the most part, I only attend them. I'm a resident like everyone else. But anyway, like I said in this post, even if you can't go to the meetings and events, you still have a phone and a computer, so report things when they happen. All of us are capable of doing something, even if we can't physically be involved in the community. Whining and complaining about crime and disorder does us no good unless we put our words to action. Especially for the sake of your children and your elderly parents, I would try my best to be involved. And lastly, personally, I don't believe in having block parties unless the community gets involved and cleans up our neighborhood.
Any info on the arrests this morning by george and ridgeway? Did the asshole with the ankle monitor get locked up finally?
It appears the last incident may not be sexual assault after all. Cop blog says CTA cameras show woman walking behind the supposed perpetrators and that her story kept changing.
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